The Silmarils
by Mayo
Summary: "Mandos foretold that the fates of Arda, earth, sea, and air, lay locked within them." (Silmarillion p67) Lindi is about to discover just what that means...
1. The Silmaril of the Sea

THE SILMARILS  
  
"...and they knew that those jewels could not be found or brought together again unless the world be broken and remade." The Silmarillion, pg. 254  
  
Lindi yawned as the submersible slowly descended through the now inky water. After several hours it had reached the ocean floor off the coast of England. She was the geologist on this expedition. The man sharing the cramped space with her was Daeron Riley, a marine biologist. When she saw the soft glow out the window of nine-inch thick glass, she figured it was a bio-luminescing fish. Then Daeron broke the stuffy silence.  
  
"What the hell is that? Lindi, c'mere, this is your area of expertise."  
  
"Huh? No, Daeron, there are no glowing rocks on the bottom of the Atlantic."  
  
"Whaddya call that then?"  
  
She pushed past him and gasped, "Omigod, grab it now and we're going topside." Daeron slowly positioned the robotic arm to grasp the stone and place it in a collection bin. It was a long trip to the surface, slowly decompressing. When they got back on the ship Lindi burst out of the submersible and jumped to the deck. She ripped out the collection bin and ran towards the lab. Daeron had to be more careful with his specimins. He reached the lab in time to see her finish hosing off the silt. Her eyes were shining as bright as the stone when she turned towards him. He loved the look she got when she was excited about a find.  
  
"Look Daeron! It's obviously been shaped by someone, it's too perfect to be natural."  
  
"It's big- What is it?"  
  
Her smile grew, "I have no idea! I think it's something totally new! It's not a diamond, opal, ruby, emerald, sapphire-well it's like it's everything combined!" She pulled a lamp over to shine on the gem, "See how it-" As soon as the light hit it, the gem shone brighter and filled the whole room with blinding light.  
  
"Whoa..." Daeron blinked a few times, "What was that?"  
  
Lindi was wide-eyed, "It reacted to the light. That radiance it gives off is like sunlight and moonlight and every other gem combined. This is so cool!"  
  
"So who lost the rock in the ocean? It doesn't seem like something you'd want to let slip. Can I hold it?"  
  
"Not before I do." She hefted it. It wasn't overly heavy although it was large, about an inch and a half across. She held it to her forehead. "It would be pretty in a crown."  
  
"Lemme see," Daeron grabbed it from her and immediately dropped it with a shriek.  
  
"Careful!" Lindi retrieved the jewel and sat back up to see Daeron holding a burnt hand. "What happened?" Daeron winced as she grabbed his arm.  
  
"How did you hold that thing? It's burning hot! Like trying to grab fire!"  
  
She looked at him strangely. "That's not possible...I've been handling it and it's perfectly cool."  
  
"Well what the hell else burned me? Have you seen me sticking my hand on any stove lately?" He shouted.  
  
"We'll figure it out after we get your hand bandaged up." Lindi helped Daeron out the door and towards the sick bay. 


	2. The Silmaril of Earth

AN: Obviously, this story is Silmarillion based and set in modern times. If you haven't read The Silmarillion, just look up "Silmarils" in the index and read all those pages, then you should be able to follow this fine. Then, later, you can read the whole Silmarillion because it's awesome.  
  
THE SILMARILS  
  
"And it is told of Maglor that he could not endure the pain with which the Silmaril tormented him; and he cast it at last into the Sea." The Silmarillion, pg. 254  
  
Daeron was sitting on a stool in Lindi's lab watching her handle the stone while the tenth crewmember in so many minutes ran cold water over a scorched finger.  
  
"Why am I the only one not getting burned?" The stone was unmarred after Daeron dropped it. He and Lindi had tried everything to put a dent in it. It was harder than diamonds, harder than anything they'd seen before.  
  
"Maybe it's alien and they dropped it here and you're part alien so it doesn't hurt you."  
  
She rolled her eyes, "That is THE stupidest idea I've ever heard. Do I look part alien to you?"  
  
He admired her slim tanned legs, arms toned from hefting countless rock samples, and finally her dark brown hair and stormy grey eyes. "Well I've kinda always had this suspicion, but this rock seems to be proving me right."  
  
"You're an idiot," she laughed.  
  
"I know. In all seriousness though, this is getting to Twilight Zone levels of weird here and I really don't want to upgrade it to X-Files. So who do we call who would know anything about this?"  
  
"I guess we try and find out if anyone else has found something similar."  
  
"I think we'd have heard of it by now."  
  
~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~  
  
A young vulcanologist was hammering away at a hardened lava flow for a sample. Finally a large piece broke away, but she ignored it in favor of what had been uncovered. A glowing gem had survived intact through an eruption. It was obviously shaped by some kind of jeweler and it was large, about one and a half inches across. She pried it out of the surrounding lava rock and held it up to the light. It glowed brightly in her heavily gloved hand.  
  
"Andrew! Get me Lindi Brown on the phone now!" Her best friend from college would be interested in this... 


	3. The Silmaril of Air

"And being in anguish and despair he [Maedhros] cast himself into a gaping chasm filled with fire, and so ended; and the Silmaril that he bore was taken into the bosom of the Earth." The Silmarillion, pg. 254  
  
As soon as the words were out of Daeron's mouth, the phone rang. Lindi snatched up the receiver. "Hello?...Emilie! It's great to hear from you...my expertise?" She glanced at Daeron wide-eyed, "You found WHAT?...Have you touched it yet?...No, not without gloves, it'll burn you...Go ahead, try it out but don't say I didn't-" Lindi pulled the phone away from her ear and Daeron heard a loud shriek. "-warn you. Where did you say you found it?...Ours was at the bottom of the ocean...We're headed in to port...See you there." She hung up and plopped down on a stool next to Daeron. "Three guesses as to what Emilie just uncovered in a lava flow, but I think you'll only need one."  
  
~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~  
  
Emilie, Daeron, and Lindi were all standing around a table in Lindi's office staring at the two identical stones. Together they shone even brighter than they had previously, but it wasn't a blinding light. It was gentle but strong, throwing crisp shadows across the floor.  
  
"This thing survived molten lava, it could even have been in the earth's core at some point, who knows where it came from. I've never seen anything like it!" Emilie waved her hands excitedly. One was bandaged tightly where she had grabbed the stone.  
  
"As far as we know they're two of a kind." Daeron rested a hand on the table. It was also bandaged.  
  
Lindi picked up both stones and peered at them for a moment. "Three of a kind."  
  
Daeron and Emilie peered at her quizzically. "Wanna run that by us one more time?"  
  
"I don't know how I know, but I just feel like there should be a third one."  
  
"Right. I say we start searching the internet for anything that sounds like these jewels." They each grabbed a computer and started searching. After about an hour, Lindi called the others over. On her screen was an essay titled "The Silmarils: Could they really exist?" written by some young geologist. Daeron read a few paragraphs and then straightened up. "Lindi, this is crazy. The Silmarillion is a work of FICTION."  
  
"But Daeron, think about it. The description fits, where we found them fits, what if it wasn't just fiction? What if we found the Silmarils? Maybe that's why I got the feeling there should be three."  
  
"Maybe you read this last night and decided to play a little joke on us."  
  
Lindi glared at Emilie, "This isn't a joke. Listen: "And it is told of Maglor that he could not endure the pain with which the Silmaril tormented him; and he cast it at last into the Sea..." which is where we found the first stone."  
  
"Lindi, you're being ridiculous," Daeron pleaded.  
  
She ignored him, "And being in anguish and despair he [Maedhros] cast himself into a gaping chasm filled with fire, and so ended; and the Silmaril that he bore was taken into the bosom of the Earth." We found the second one in lava."  
  
"That's enough."  
  
"The description is right on too: "Like the crystal of diamonds it appeared, and yet was more strong than adamant, so that no violence could mar it or break it within the Kingdom of Arda...the Silmarils of their own radiance shone like the stars of Varda." If I'm right, the third stone will be in space."  
  
Emilie's jaw dropped, "SPACE? Lindi quit it! That is the stupidest thing I ever heard."  
  
" "Eärendil the Mariner sat at the helm, glistening with the dust of elven- gems, and the Silmaril was bound upon his brow. Far he journeyed...even into the starless voids." There was a star called Eärendil in Tolkien's writings. It is supposed to correspond to Venus."  
  
"You've finally cracked."  
  
"We'll just see. You guys try to find a better explanation." She grabbed the jewels and marched out, slamming the door behind her.  
  
~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~  
  
A meteor roughly the size of Mt. Everest slammed into Venus, sending a piece of the planet out into space, headed toward Earth. NASA detected it, determined it was too small to do much damage, and would land somewhere in the desert of Texas. They began making calls to round up a team to analyze samples once it hit. 


End file.
